Ɛpsilon

To M. H. Truelove   1 July 1878

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

July 1. 1878

Private

Sir

From living in the country I never heard your Father’s name, until his trial, & know absolutely nothing about him. It is, therefore impossible for me to sign the memorial which states that “he is a person of honourable character & blameless life, who in good faith &c”; not that I have any reason whatever to doubt these several statements.

I have not seen the Moral Phys. by R. D. Owen, but have heard the nature of its content; & though I am strongly opposed to all such views & plans, yet the conviction of your Father seemed to me very harsh, as the publication of works of this nature can hardly be considered as obscene in the ordinary sense of the word.—1

I am sorry for your Father, but cannot aid him, & remain | Sir | Your obedient servt. | Ch. Darwin

1
Edward Truelove was in Coldbath Fields prison serving a four-month sentence for publishing an edition of Robert Dale Owen’s Moral physiology, a book about birth control first published by Owen in the US in 1830 (R. D. Owen 1877 and R. D. Owen 1830). Truelove had been prosecuted at the instigation of the Society for the Suppression of Vice and tried under the Obscene Publications Act (also known as Lord Campbell’s Act); the jury, however, could not agree on a verdict, and Truelove was convicted only after a second hearing. See Truelove 1878, pp. 98–9, and Amphlett Micklewright 1961, p. 41.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11580,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11580